Jouka
Joukahainen, or Jouka for short, is a minor character that only appeared in the Backstories segment of Rishiritou no Inu no Densetsu. Originally Maikki's rival, their relationship eventually goes through many twists and turns before they eventually settle to viewing each other as enemies. Rishiritou no Inu no Densetsu Backstories An old acquaintance of Maikki and Seppo back in their days of living in Finland, Jouka became the former dog's unofficial rival despite their different ways of hunting as well as what they hunted. Whereas Maikki would always engage in battle with the bears she and her owner had managed to track down, Jouka would hunt birds (for an example, capercaillies) in a way typical of his breed; point for them and then start to relentlessly bark at them non-stop until his owner finally shot them. Whenever he was shown in public and when Maikki was especially there to see this, Jouka would be all smiles and cheers – but once the crowd had dissipated, he would show his true colors as an arrogant, egotistical, selfish and borderline cruel dog, with a few hints of chauvinism thrown in there to boot, yet still having a sophisticated aura about him that pretty much said “hahaha, I’m better than you in all ways possible”. It wasn’t uncommon for these two to get into very heated arguments, in which they threw insults at the other’s way of hunting, followed eventually by Jouka making some passing comments at how females shouldn’t be allowed to hunt big games like bears, or even be allowed to hunt at all. Had their owners just left them alone or even decided to take a much longer time talking with one another, these two most likely would’ve killed the other long ago. It was during one of these particular exchanges of words that these two made a bet that would be the start of many changes in their relationship as they knew it; whoever chased the most bears away, or even just about any kind of game that would pose as threat to the humans, with their respective hunting skills without killing (Maikki) or being killed (Jouka) would win, and the loser would simply had to learn his or her place in the winner’s presence. Sneaking away from their owners in the middle of the night, the two carried out their contest in separate locations. Though managing to keep up with this throughout the whole night to the very early rays of dawn, things seemingly took a turn for the worse when one of the bears that Jouka had harassed earlier dove in for the kill… …only to be stopped by Maikki, who had secretly been spying on him to make sure that he wouldn’t go off and do anything stupid (like cheat his way out of this). At first, Jouka made a run for it, leaving the Karelian Bear Dog to deal with his problems, until he stopped in the middle of his running when he heard her howl in agony, obviously having been struck by said bear. Conflicted over what to do, the Finnish Spitz just stood there for a very long period of time, occasionally listening in on what was going on behind him. If he left her to die, he would’ve most likely made it back alive, and he would no longer have to listen to that bitch bitching about how she could do everything better than he could… but, would it really be worth it? What would her owner think? Even though they (him and Maikki) couldn’t get along for whatever reasons, their owners sure could. And if they somehow found out about his cowardly actions, who knows what would happen. And what if the bear wouldn’t just have enough with one dog? What if it decided to go for more dogs, which might even escalate to it going for the humans? With these thoughts in his mind (and not because of the fact that he felt like he owed the Karelian or anything), Jouka ran back in the location he’d left Maikki and the bear in, rammed himself into said bear, grabbed the female and made a run for it to a much safer location – in his mind, the two were probably far away from either of their homes, especially Maikki, to be able to run back there now. During the time spent hiding from any potential threats, the two actually decided to spend some quality time together; making some shallow small talks, along with the Karelian even trying to teach Jouka how to properly hunt as best as she could in her condition in order to survive without looking for guidance and reassurance from his owner to actually kill the prey. By the time both Seppo and their owners had found them, a mutual bond of respect and eventual friendship had blossomed between the two. Although the two still chose to keep up with their rivalry once they’d both fully recovered, it was a bit more playful than usual, eventually escalating to some degree of harmless flirting (or at least, harmless to them, but not to a certain male Karelian who was occasionally accompanying the female), with Maikki even calling him “Kettu” – the Finnish word for “red fox”. Then came another milestone in their relationship – Maikki had just reached the age of 2, and was slowly but surely starting to show interest in the acts of mating. This worried her owner a lot, as he has had no real experience in this particular department. Jouka’s owner, who grew up with a family of reputable breeders, gave his friend an option; either he got the Karelian spayed and thus get rid of the possibility of unwanted pups, or be forced to deal with her running off somewhere and mate with other males and be forced to pay an unnecessary amount of money for these unwanted pups in his household (along with the possibility of having his beautiful hunting dog “tainted”). While in the middle of their conversation, Jouka had somehow managed to sneak past his owner and corner Maikki into having a conversation, much reminiscent of their time when they were waiting for rescue. At least, that’s what his original intentions had been until she started to coming onto him. Luckily, nothing happened, as before things could’ve escalated into something more, Seppo had chosen to intervene at this particular time. However, it didn’t stop there, not even when both Jouka and his owner left almost instantaneously. The ecstasy that the Finnish Spitz felt as the Karelian had brought her body to his, the feeling of actually becoming the first male to show her her place, knowing full well that Seppo – who, despite having been able to over-power him and therefore stop him from “violating” Maikki – would never be willing to do so even if it just so happened to be his heart and body’s desire… it just felt soo right. And so, Jouka started to secretly court the Karelian female behind their humans’ backs. In the end, Jouka finally got what he wanted, not really thinking that something would come out of it until one day, when his owner decided to bring a clearly pregnant Maikki home with him to make sure that the pups were delivered safely and then sold to wonderful homes. As expected, the Finnish Spitz was pissed at the idea that something like this was happening to him, not once even bothering to pay any attention to the pregnant female in front of him. Not even when Maikki demanded him to take responsibility for what they’d just done did he relent, but rather retaliated with accusations that the pups she was carrying weren’t even his, but Seppo’s – for all he knew, she’d most likely even bedded “that idiot” during the time they were separated. Against his will, Jouka became the father of 5 healthy pups, each proof of what he and Maikki had committed in one way or another. In his anger while both the Karelian and the pups were around, the Finnish Spitz often tried to kill the pups (from suffocating them whenever their mother was seemingly absent at the moment, to actually nearly tearing them apart), and each time he was thwarted by their mother, who would eventually earn a few injuries as proof. By the time all of the pups had been given away, things had turned very sour between them, and they’re once again back on square one. They wanted absolutely nothing to do with one another – at least, not at first, from Jouka’s point of view that is. Only once Maikki had returned to her owner and slowly but surely became the one female that would make every males’ skins crawl and their hair stand up just at the mere mention of her name did the Finnish Spitz realize just what a monster he’d created. Jouka tried to apologize to her on the many occasions they met, but each time she rejected him, sometimes even provoking him to kill her. Eventually, Jouka finally gave up on trying apologizing to the female, and by the time Maikki, Seppo, and the six month old pup known as Kia left for Hokkaido he is never seen nor heard of again. To Maikki, his name is taboo and the mere mention of her past weakness would result in an unfortunate pooch’s near-death. Not even Kia, who came to develop a very close bond with the Karelian, was safe to speak of him in the elder’s presence. Main story While Jouka himself never made an actual appearance in the main story, his existence still left some very heavy scars on Maikki. Her unwillingness to truly fall in love with males, even for the males that truly did fall in love with her and tried everything in their hardest to gain her acceptance, and her general hatred of them all goes back to how Jouka treated her as nothing more but a way to relieve himself. As mentioned above - Jouka's name is strictly taboo, and the mere mention of his name, let alone what she considered her "past weakness", would often result in an unfortunate pooch's near-death. Seppo, whenever he got so frustrated with everything, often brought him up in his conversations with Taka's concubine #6 about how if the Finnish Spitz had just taken at least some responsibility for his actions, maybe Maikki wouldn't have turned out the way she did, and probably have accepted his affection in time. After the Amazonian-Predator that eventually brought up some unwanted information about what her second mate had been doing before all of this, Maikki's hatred for males escalated to the point where she was willing to abuse her own son - an act she hadn't even done to any of her male pups from her first litter with Jouka. Category:Males Category:Rishiritou no Inu no Densetsu Category:Other dog breeds